As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
The majority of current laptop and desktop computer systems utilize cooling fans inside a chassis enclosure to cool the system components such as system chipset contained inside the chassis enclosure. Such cooling fans draw-in cool air and push out heat generated by system components using a network of heatsink, fin stack and heat pipe mechanisms. The cooler air is pulled into the chassis enclosure by the cooling fans via a series of air inlets and is exhausted from the chassis enclosure by a series of air outlets. The design of these air inlets and outlets is typically determined based on thermal simulation, industrial design and the allowed mechanical limits for openings defined in the structure of the chassis enclosure. Perforations are defined in the chassis enclosure to act as the air inlets and outlets, and these perforations tend to collect dust over a period of time with cumulative air flow. This collected dust adversely effects the thermal performance of the system components within the chassis enclosure, and causes user dissatisfaction. For example, due to notebook computer architecture and component placement, the air inlet is typically defined in the bottom of the notebook system where there is a greater probability that the fan will ingest dirt, lint and other debris that over time tend to clog the thermal heat sink and/or other system components, leading to reduced thermal efficiency of the system. When this occurs, higher system temperatures result which leads to frequent activation of over temperature protection (OTP).
Information handling systems and other devices often utilize blower apparatus or cooling fans to regulate temperature generated within a chassis of the device. For example, notebook computers and similar devices often employ a blower to cool the system chipset together with other heat sources that may be present within the chassis. Due to notebook computer architecture and component placement, the blower inlet is typically defined in the bottom of the system where there is a greater probability that the blower fan will ingest dirt, lint and other impurities that over time tend to clog the thermal heat sink and/or other system components, leading to reduced thermal efficiency of the system. When this occurs, higher system temperatures result which leads to frequent activation of over temperature protection (OTP). Conventional solutions for removing collected dust typically employ physical (mechanical) dust removal techniques. Prototype fans exist that utilize a separate air channel to exhaust dust out a secondary air path when reversing the fan at system boot as described in United States Patent Application Publication Number 20120026677.
It is known to provide a personal computer with an internal altimeter that senses the altitude to which the personal computer is exposed to allow the personal computer to display the sensed altitude to a user of the personal computer.